August - 2014 Odisha Review
Girish Swain
Words often stage radical transformations in holding lasting impressions on the minds and imagination of the most timid millions, who miraculously turn to be mighty heroes. This is aptly evident from the lines those changed the course of world history. Perhaps the most significant of them is the ground breaking statement of French political philosopher Jean Jacque’s Rousseau who said “Man is born free but everywhere in chains”.
The modified version of Karl Marx equally progenited the ‘Withering away of the State and
Dictatorship of the Proletariat’ by proclaiming
“Workers of the world, Unite, You have nothing to lose except the Chains”. The dictum by Voltaire
“Man is free the moment he wishes to be” is still reckoned as the line that ignited many revolutions across the globe. In the great Indian freedom struggle, the two clarion calls those caused India’s metamorphosis from the wombs of oppressing colonialism to the resurgence of a vibrant subcontinent were ‘Quit India’ and ‘Do or Die’. The analytical exposition of these two awakening statements can be drawn through zooming in the series of events those witnessed the paradigm shift in the philosophy ruling our emancipation from the clutches of imperialism.
Without the consent of millions of Indians, our country was dragged to World War I since its outbreak in 1939. It was choosing between two of the worst alternatives - Nazi fascism and
British imperialism just like choosing to be in a frying pan or oven. We had no choice and India as a part of British Empire became a party to the
Allies’. Maintaining a neutral stand although
Congress showed its allegiance to the Gandhian philosophy, it also did breathe the aspiration of freedom in letter and spirit that the end of the war will dawn a new era in the horizon of India. But to the utter surprise of our pioneering leaders the
British regime was shuffling its cards in cognito.
They sent Sir Stafford Cripps the senior left wing
British Leader and a minister in the then Churchill’s war cabinet during March 1942 to propose an alluring step towards a constitution for India , an event that was marked in world history as the illfamed Cripps’ Mission. The hidden agenda was to gain India’s support for their war by hoodwinking the frontline leaders of the ongoing movement.
Mahatma Gandhi had an unfathomable wit to counter the nasty tricks played by the nation of shop keepers as Napoleon termed the
Britishers. He rejected Cripps’ proposal seeking for slow and gradual devolution of power culminating in a dominion status for India with the ending of the war. Gandhi had tremendous adherence to strike an impeccable balance in the unending dichotomy of means and ends. For him
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Odisha Review the process of ushering in to freedom was more important than the outcome, as the journey quite often assumes more significance than the destination. The very word ‘dominion’ was phenomenally unacceptable to the apostle of truth and non-violence. His words of polite sarcasm startled the world when Gandhi labelled the proposal of Cripps as ‘a post-dated cheque on a crashing bank’. Earlier his unexampled humour had ridiculed the protagonists of aggressive capitalism when he named his oxen driven junked
Ford automobile at Tolstoy Farm as the ‘Ox
Ford’. But this time the tag of ‘crashing bank’ signalled that the imperial rule has neared the brinks of abyss soon tending to be dwindling in to oblivion.
Gandhi’s loud and clear call to the rulers in May 1942 was to leave India to God or if it was too much to anarchy was unbelievable to couple of English hardliners who perceived him as the ‘half naked fakir’ . The Wardha Session of
Congress Working Committee on 14 July 1942 electrifyingly amplified Gandhi’s soft voice by passing unanimously a resolution for ‘Immediate ending of British Rule in India’. Gandhi wanted to give a catchy slogan to the movement that would work as an elixir in the rising of the national spirit from slumber.
While discussing about the slogan the first one that came abruptly was ‘Get Out’. Gandhi had hatred for the imperialism but not for the
English race as a part of humanity. So he could not vouch for the phrase impregnating impoliteness. The intellectual icon of freedom movement and a great scholar Chakravarty
Rajagopalachari put forward two alternatives like
‘Retreat’ or ‘Withdraw’. It seems these words for Gandhi were too verbose to have any magnetic effect in pulling the millions of countrymen. But the turning point was presentation of a bow to
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Gandhi by Yusuf Meherally, the socialist leader and freedom fighter as a symbolic representation of the radical urge for independence. On the bow two words were inscribed. Quit India. The words touched Gandhi as well as the core freedom fighters. Quit India became the slogan of ‘August
Kranti’. Yusuf Meherally was the same noted activist who had coined the term ‘Simon Go
Back’ in 1928.
In the historic session of the then All India
Congress Committee held on August 7 and 8 the movement took a decisive turn. On midnight of
8 th -9 th August 1942 the trendsetting Quit India
Resolution was passed. Addressing the large gathering at Gowalia Tank Maidan of Bombay,
Gandhi said “There is a mantra , short one that I give you. You imprint it on your heart and let every breath of yours give an expression to it. The mantra is “do or die”. Critics ascribed it to a shift in the Gandhian faith in non-violence. Gandhi made his mind clear in the charged appeal he made in the speech by saying “Before you discuss the resolution, let me place before you one or two things. There are people who ask me whether I am the same man that I was in 1920, or whether there has been any change in me. You are right in asking that question.Let me;however, hasten to assure that I am the same Gandhi as I was in 1920.
I have not changed in any fundamental respect. I attach the same importance to non-violence that
I did then. If at all, my emphasis on it has grown stronger. There is no real contradiction between the present resolution and my previous writings and utterances. I want you to know and feel that there is nothing but purest Ahimsa in all that I am saying and doing today. God has vouchsafed to me a priceless gift in the weapon of Ahimsa. I and my Ahimsa are on our trail today. If in the present crisis, when the earth is being scorched by the flames of Himsa and crying for deliverance,
I failed to make use of the God given talent, God

August - 2014 will not forgive me and I shall be judged unworthy of the great gift."
Gandhi had unstinted faith in nonviolence.
But he had no affinity towards cowardice either.
He used to stress on the opinion that given to choose between cowardice and violence, he would rather prefer violence as cowardice may prove fatal but cowardice is death. But very strategically he deliberated upon the unique proposition of ‘Quit India Movement’ by differentiating it from a violent struggle. Gandhi in his speech said “Ours is not a drive for power, but purely a non-violent fight for India’s independence. In a violent struggle, a successful general has been often known to effect a military coup and to set up a dictatorship. But under the
Congress scheme of things, essentially non-violent as it is, there can be no room for dictatorship. A non-violent soldier of freedom will covet nothing for himself; he fights only for the freedom of his country.”
Quit India and Do or Die swept the nation with an unprecedented wave of unity. Although
Odisha Review majority of leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, Patel and
Azad were arrested by the British rulers in the early hours of 9 th August, the movement continued with the fervour furthered by the undergrounded leaders like Ram Manohar Lohia and Jay Prakash
Narain. But a great role was played by the
Congress Radio that was being broadcast by an educated Indian girl Usha Mehta through the frequency 42.34. One may be astonished at the historic co-incidence. In 1934 the Civil
Disobedience Movement was called off and in
1942 the Quit India Movement took off. The frequency to the utter amazement of Indians and
Britishers as well carried the set of two digits representing two turning points of Indian history leading towards our much awaited freedom.
These two slogans also had ripple effects in the minds of great freedom fighters of Odisha. A series of unrest and radical uprising by Odia heroes evidently testify the veracity of the effects as reposed through the sounding of these punch lines.
Girish Swain, International Development and Corporate
Communications Consultant, girishpswain@gmail.com.
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